Séverin Guelpa
Séverin Guelpa's practice is rooted in fragile and contested landscapes - territories where the relationships between natural systems, material resources, economic structures, and human survival are rendered particularly visible. His work considers landscape not as a passive backdrop, but as an active field shaped by geological forces, human intervention, extraction, and transformation.
Responding to an era marked by climate disruption, resource depletion, and the accelerated circulation of matter and energy, Guelpa approaches landscape simultaneously as subject, material, and language. His practice has taken him across deserts, arid regions, industrial sites, and other transitional geographies, where he seeks to uncover the physical and poetic dimensions embedded within these environments.
Immersion is fundamental to Guelpa's methodology. Through extended residencies and expeditions, he spends sustained periods within a territory, observing its conditions, documenting its transformations, and gathering materials directly from the landscape. Situated between artistic practice and field research, his process incorporates moving and still images, sound recordings, and elemental substances - including stone, earth, minerals, water, and metal.
Removed from their original contexts and reconfigured within sculptures and installations, these materials retain something of the histories, tensions, and physical forces of the places from which they originate. Guelpa's works thus operate as material records of territory: traces of landscapes undergoing continual processes of erosion, extraction, displacement, and renewal. Through this transformation of matter, he gives physical form to the often invisible forces - environmental, economic, and human-that shape our relationship to the land.
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Cutting Boards, 2026 -
Ground System, 2026
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Dancing With The Sky, 2025
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Boulder, 2024
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The Needles, 2024
Education
1997 Bachelors in Political Science, Geneva University
2013 Masters in Visual Arts, Haute école d'art et de design, Geneva
Solo Exhibitions
2027 Forthcoming Exhibition Maybaum Gallery
2026 Galerie Stephan Witschi, Zurich, Switzerland
2025 BoxoHouse, Joshua Tree, CA, permanent work
2025 Espace L, Geneva, Switzerland
2025 École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
2025 Kunts Klima, Stuttgart, Germany
2024 Les Colonnes de Boujaafar, Sousse, Tunisia, permanent work
2023 Centre d'art Les Halles, Porrentruy, Switzerland
2022 Université de Genève, Geneva, Switzerland
2021 Building Bridges Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
2021 Kuntshalle Arbon, Arbon, Switzerland
2020 Théâtre de L'Orangerie, Geneva, Switzerland
2019 Kunstraum Walcheturm, Zurich, Switzerland
2019 Duplex Zeppelin, Meyrin, Switzerland
2019 Le Salon Vert Gallery, Carouge, Switzerland
2017 Ferme Asile, Sion, Switzerland
2017 The Sun Bowl and the Circle, Amboy, CA
2016 Halle Nord, Geneva, Switzerland
2015 Dryland Motel Lobby lab, Amboy, CA
2015 Project Space MAXXX, Sierre, Switzerland
2015 Halle Nord, Capsule 2, Geneva, Switzerland
2014 Le Salon Vert Gallery, Carouge, Switzerland
2014 Golden Smile Salty Tears, Amboy, CA
2013 A Corn's Story, performance, Beijing, China
2011 Café CULT, Geneva, Switzerland
2011 UNI MAIL University building, Geneva, Switzerland
2011 Stargazer Gallery, Geneva, Switzerland
2011 Ex-Machina Gallery, Geneva, Switzerland
Group Exhibitions
2026 Forthcoming Exhibition Maybaum Gallery, USA
2026 Art Monto Carlo, Fabienne Levy Gallery, France
2026 Art Geneve, Fabienne Levy Gallery, Switzerland
2026 (Re)Connecting Earth, Switzerland
2025 St.Moritz Film Art Festival, Switzerland
2025 Oi Futuro Museum, Brazil
2025 Larnaca Biennale, Cyprus
2024 Backstage, Switzerland
2024 Linge(s) 202, Switzerland
2024 Rumbling Waters, Exposition de la collection la Mobilière, Switzerland
2023 Marge de Manoeuvres, le Manoir de Martigny, Switzerland
2023 Vivement Demain, Bex & Arts, triennale d'art, Switzerland
2023 Transformations, Musée F. Gertsch, Switzerland
2022 Los Angeles Art Show
2022 FMAC, exposition des acquisitions 2021, Switzerland
2022 Cidade Floresta, Museo de Manana, Brazil
2022 Appetizers 2022, Switzerland
2021 Ephemere et Durable, Au bord de l'Air, Switzerland
2021 Resistencia y Poder, Centex, Chile
2021 Magallanges y las Geografias de lo (Des)conocido, Parque Cultural Valparaiso, Chile
2021 Magallanges y las Geografias de lo (Des)conocido, Suizspacio, Chile
2021 Resistencia y Poder, Museo Regional de Magallanes, Chile
2021 Low Tech, Forum Meyrin, Switzerland
2021 Appetizers, Leuk Schloss, Switzerland
2020 Avant Demain, Château de Pentes, Switzerland
2020 Tremblement, Switzerland
2020 Bone Festival, Swizterland
2019 Superstructure, Swizterland
2019 Get a Nerve, Switzerland
2019 Paradise Parallax, Joshua Tree Treeniale, Joshua Tree, USA
2019 Le Büro, Laurence Bernard Gallery, Switzerland
2019 Spielact Festival, Switzerland
2019 Heart Geneva, Switzerland
2019 Les Dilettantes Gallery, Switzerland
2019 Baleapop Festival, France
2019 Point de Vue, La Poudrière, France
2018 Art Geneve, Switzerland
2018 Mass in Motion, Matza, Aletsch Glacier, Switzerland
2018 Galerie des Multiples, France
2018 Utopies Visuelles, Tunisia
2018 JBAM#2018, Switzerland
2018 Union TMF, Halle Nord, Switzerland
2018 Managing New Displacements from Geography, Atacama Desert, Chile
2018 De Retour du Glacier, Matza Aletsch, Swizterland
2017 Commun, Matza Kerkennah, Bardo National Museum, Tunisia
2017 Do Disturb, Palais de Tokyo, France
2017 Jaoui Festival, Tunisia
2017 Triennale du Valais, Switzerland
2016 Staring Axis, 4th Biennale of Land Art, Mongolia
2016 Undergrounds, Matza, Amboy, USA
2016 Undergrounds, Bâtiment 76, Switzerland
2016 Undergrounds, Matza, Aletsch Glacier, Switzerland
2016 Twisting Crash, Romantso Art Space, Greece
2015 Dryland Motel Lobby Lab, Matza, Amboy, USA
2014 Un Regard Sur la Ville, Musée Gruérien, Switzerland
2014 Agora, 4th Biennale d'Athènes, Greece
2013 C'es Moi Qui Choisis, LIVH (Live in Your Head), Switzerland
2013 Cultural Clash, Germany, France, Switzerland
2013 The Fawn, the Ford, the Roses and the Stretching Tree, France
2013 Lancy 2012, Swizterland
2013 Bureau de Pratiques Réversibles, Espace temporaire, Switzerland
2013 Studio3003, International exhibition of young artists, China
2012 Rathania's, Musée Rath, Switzerland
2012 Ex-Corpus, Ex-Machina Gallery, Switzerland
2011 Jungkunst, Switzerland
2011 Manifesto, France
Awards and Residencies
2020 Swiss Art Award (finalist)
2018 Prix Picker Aparté 2017-2018
2016 Prix Artpro pour projet expérimental, Canton du Valais
2013 Prix "Coup de coeur" des amis de la Fondation AHEAD, Geneva
2021 Building Bridges Residency, Los Angeles USA
2020 CAB Residency, Punta Arenas, Patagonia, Chile
2019 Hearings, site specific intervention, Manaus, Brazil
2019 BOXO Residency, Joshua Tree, CA
Collections
Collection d'art de la Mobilière
Fonds cantonal d'art contemporain du Canton de Genève, Switzerland
Fonds municipal d'art contemporain de la Ville de Genève, Switzerland
Fonds municipal d'art contemporain de la Ville de Meyrin, Switzerland
Art + Museum, Donaueschingen, Denmark